Packing for pump plungers



Oct. 5 1926.

G. CHRISTENSQN PACKING FOR PUMP PLUNGERS Filed Jan. 24. 1925 176037 e07ye 6767115 Zens 071/ Hz m, 7%

Patented Get. .5, 1926.-

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE CHRISTENSON, OF NORTH PLAINFIELD, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO JOHNS- MANVILLE INCORPORATED, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

PACKING FOR PUMP PLUNGERS Application filed January 24, @925. Serial No. 4,629.

My invention relates to the construction of packings for pump plungers and particularly to packings for swabbing plungers which are used for raising oil from a deep 6 oil well. For this service the practiceis to lower a pump plunger into a sectional oil 4 ipe to a depth estimated to be considerably elow the level of oil in the well and then raise the plunger with its superincumbent 10 load of oil to the ground surface.

By reason of the inevitable roughness and irregularities in the oil pipes in common use the packings of plun ers used for this duty have been short live The causes of accldent and injury to such plunger packings are quite diverse and sometimes unexpected ,so that structural features of paekings intended or adapted to provide against the'more usual contingencies may prove inadequate when encountering the unexpected.

The object of the improvements herein described is to arm such a plunger packing at all points and in such manner as to insure it against injury from abnormal impacts or abrasions from any quarter. Structural provisions made with such intent must be con- 'sistent with the retention by the packing as a whole of a pro er measure of flexibility and elasticity an consistent'also with the retention of those qualities which render the packing \fluid-tight and capable of withstanding the very considerable fluid pres sures which develop in use.

In the drawings hereto annexed which illustrate my im rovements,

Fig. 1 shows in vertical section a portion of an oil well pipe, 8. swab plunger head, and three packing members;

Fig. 2 shows on a lar er scale one of the 4 packing cones in vertica section; and

' Fig. 3, on the same scale as Fig. 2, shows a cone in top plan view.

In the drawings, A represents a section of an oil well pipe and G a coupling member by which one section is attached to another. Usually an annular s ace such as H is left between the ends of ad acent pipe sections, and such spaces, together with original irregularities in the interior of the pipes,

dents produced by accident, etc., are among the features incidental to oil well practice which call for special protective devices in the packing members of an oil well swab. B designates generally a tubular swab head which is composed of sections B these sections being screwed together endwise when the head is assembled forming a tubular member open at both ends, one end provided with a section at B which may serve for the attachment of the hoisting cable and the other end a suitable check valve as V for the admission of oil to and its passage through the head as the latter is lowered. Each of the sections B is provided with an exterior shoulder B between which and the threaded end of the adjacent section the calyx C is rigidly and securely held. This calyx, which constitutes the seat and lower support for the packing member is preferably frustoconical in shape, having a flaring lip C The packing member D is a tubular cone shaped body interiorly shouldered-at D and exteriorly shouldered at D (See Fig. 2). The interior shoulder engages with a complemental ledge on the tubular head section B and the exterior shoulder D with the upper edge of the calyx lip C The packing member D is conical in shape and will therefore be referred to as a cone of which the body consists of hard rubber composition or like material which possesses elasticity and flexibility operative within the rathernarrow required limits to permit occasional distortion of the cone from its normal shape, and to restore itself when the distortive force is removed. Preferably the interior of the cone is of such dimensions as to form a clearance between the cone and the plunger stem which it surrounds. This clearance is preferably provided by moldin the cone with an interior conical surface. or protection an assemblage of protector plates such as E, which may be made of sheet steel, radially disposed and circumferentially spaced, are

lodged in the material of'which the cone is composed. Each of these protector plates E has a notch or shoulder at E which coincides in position with the annular shoulder of the cone D. The preferred manner in which to assemble the protector plates in the cone is to arrange the plates in the mold in which the cone is formed so that the plates may thus be the more securely embedded in the material of the cone.

The upper middle portion of the cone and likewise the exposed edges E of the protector plate lie in a substantially cylindrical surface so that this edge or portion of the packing which normally engages the interior wall of the oil pipe will have a sufliciently large area of contact therewith. The upper ends of the plates at E and likewise the corresponding-surface of the cone B are inwardly tapered or rounded. The elastic and yielding material of the cone D preferably extends upward as a relatively thin and flexible lip 13*.

Guard plates F of rigid material are secured, as by shrinking or burring, to the plunger head sections, each guard plate lying immediately over the upper lip D of a packing cone with its depending outer flange F surrounding the upper end of said cone. This flange F should normally approach quite closely to the upper ends of the protector plates E for a purpose hereinafter to be mentioned. The guard rings F as at points F provide aperture communication to the clearance space between the cone D and the plunger head section B By means of the construction above described, both of the packing membervitself and its immediate associated adjuncts, shocks or pressures tending to compress, distort or dislodge the packing member longitudinally are resisted by the shoulder en gagemen't both of the cone body and the protector plates with the lip C of the calyx C, the hook engagement of the protector plate with the body of the cone at E guarding against relative longitudinal vdisplacement of the protector plate and flexible cone body; at the other end longitudinal disarrangement or distortion is guarded against by the close proximity between the flan e F of the guard ring and the upper en s of the protector plates. Components of pressure or impact directed inwardly are rendered harmless by the readiness of the cone D to yield inwardly in radial directions. The steel protector plates by reason of their hard material and their exterior conformations serve as skids which assist the packing member to pass obstacles in the pipe and protect the softer material ofthe cone against serious abrasions. Since the cone should be permitted to expand outainst the efiect of too great provided to meet these requirements. When these two named members are in actual con tact the pressure on the interior of the cone will be permitted by reason of the limited flexibility and elasticity oi the cone material to expand the cone as a whole to a slight degree when such expansion is re-' quired to maintain local fluid-tight contact between the cone and the oil pipe; but undesirable response to expanding pressure, is eflectively checked by the restraining influence of the flange F I claim:

1. A packing for oil well plungers of the character described, comprising a relatively rigid calyx, a tubular cone of relatively flexible material, and protector plates of relatively hard material, radially disposed, circumferentially spaced, lodged in the body of the cone with their outer edges exposed, said plates provided with shoulders to engage the lip of the calyx 2. A packing for oil well plungers of the character described, comprising a relatively rigid calyx, a tubular cone of relatively flexible material, said cone at one end adapted to be seated in thecalyx, and provided with a shoulder to engage the lip of the calyx, and protector plates of relatively hard material, radially disposed, circumferentially spaced, lodged in the body of the cone with their outer edges exposed, said plates provided with shoulders to engage the lip of the calyx.

3. A packing for oil well plungers of the character described, comprising a relatively.

rigid calyx, a tubular cone of relatively flexible 'material, and protector plates of relatively hard material, radially disposed, circumferentially spaced, lodged in the body of the cone with their outer edges exposed, said plates provided with shoulders to engage the lip of the calyx, and with retaining extensions projecting inwardly in the cone material.

4. A packing for oil well plungers of the character described comprising a relatively rigid calyx, a tubular cone of relatively flexible material, and protector plates of relatively hard material, radially disposed, circumferentially spaced, lodged in the body of the cone with their outer edges exposed, said plates provided with shoulders to engage the lip of the calyx and extending therefrom to points near the end of the cone remote from the calyx.

5.'A packing for oil well plungers of the character described, comprising a relatively rigid calyx, a tubular cone of relatively flex:

ible material, protector plates of relatively other end free, and a guard of rigid material hard material, radially disposed, circumferadapted to engage with the free end of the entially spaced, lodged in the body of the cone and with the ends of the protector cone with their outer edges exposed, said plates. V I plates provided with shoulders to engage Signed by me at Manville, N. J this 19th the lip of the calyx, said cone adapted'to be day of January, 1925.

seated at one end in the calyx, and at the GEORGE CHRISTEN SON 

